54.2
Lysander, who was a clever quibbler, and given to employing cunning deceptions to further most of his designs, counted justice as mere expediency, and honour as that which is advantageous. He said that the truth is better than falsehood, but that the worth and value of either is determined by the use to which it is put. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, chap. vii. (437 A).
54.3
In answer to those who blamed him because of his carrying out most of his designs through deception, which they said was unworthy of Heracles The legendary ancestor of both lines of Spartan kings; Cf. Herodotus, vii. 204 and viii. 131. and gaining his successes by wile in no straightforward way, he said laughing that where he could not get on with the lion’s skin it must be pieced out with the skin of the fox. Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (2), supra.
54.4
When others censured him for his violation of his oaths which he had made in Miletus he said that one must trick children with knuckle-bones, but men with oaths, Repeated in Moralia, 330 F, where it is attributed to Dionysius; Moralia, 741 C; Diodorus, x. 9. 1; Dio Chysostom, Oration, lxxiv. (399 R., 640 M.); Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 45. 3; and Aelian, Varia Historia, vii. 12, who says that some attribute it to Lysander, and others to Philip of Macedon.
54.5
He conquered the Athenians by a ruse at Aegospotami, and by pressing them hard through famine he forced them to surrender their city, whereupon he wrote to the Ephors, Athens is taken. According to Plutarch, Life of Lysander, chap. xiv. (441 B), the Ephors objected to the verbosity of the dispatch!
54.6
In answer to the Argives, who were disputing with the Spartans in regard to the boundaries of their land and said that they had the better of the case, he drew his sword and said, He who is master of this talks best about boundaries of land. Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (3), supra.
